Enhanced safety measures at new cluster at Orange Valley home
A new Covid-19 cluster was identified at the Orange Valley Nursing Home branch in Simei after four of the home's residents tested positive for the coronavirus.
The four, aged between 72 and 97, were found to have the virus on Wednesday as part of the Ministry of Health's (MOH's) enhanced testing of all nursing home patients and staff.
Staff members of the nursing home - tested early this month and again after the cluster was discovered - have tested negative.
After the four cases were found, the close contacts of the affected residents, as well as the staff members who had tested negative earlier, were tested again. All these tests were also negative.
The Agency for Integrated Care said the nursing home has complied with enhanced precautionary measures, such as not allowing visitors to the home, strictly adhering to split-zone requirements and ensuring safe distancing.
Orange Valley Nursing Homes said it has been proactively administering Covid-19 test swabs on all residents and staff since April 30.
It said it is in touch with the families of the four residents who tested positive and is offering support.
Orange Valley has thoroughly cleaned and disinfected the ward and affected areas of the nursing home, and said it will continue with the increased cleaning frequency during this period.
There were 448 new cases announced by MOH yesterday, 434 of them in foreign worker dormitories.
Of the 14 other cases, all but one are Singaporeans or permanent residents.
MOH also announced the death of a 73-year-old Singaporean man due to Covid-19 complications. He was confirmed to have the virus on April 17 and had a history of hypertension, hyperlipidaemia and hypothyroidism.
An additional three cases were picked up from MOH's active surveillance of pre-school staff.
The Early Childhood Development Agency said yesterday that it is expecting some positive cases to be identified as it tests all workers ahead of a planned reopening of pre-schools from June 2.
Also among the new infections is a family cluster with four cases. They are household contacts of an earlier announced case, the Bishan MRT employee, and have been linked to the Cochrane Lodge II cluster, where one of the family members went to work.
By the numbers
448 New cases
23 Deaths
14 New cases in community
12108 Total recovered
29812 Total cases
901 Total in hospital
910 Discharged yesterday
10 Intensive care unit
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